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I SLEPT A LOT MORE than usual for the next three days after the ball. Aurora bought a queen size bed so she could comfort me at night. My old single bed was taken away and had probably been tossed in the dump.
On the fourth day of moping around and gaming nonstop, the niggling feeling that it was time to return to the underworld crept over me. I knew Aurora felt it as well. She kept giving me sidelong looks when she got home from work.
“What’s going on with you two?” mom asked while we were eating dinner. Kye was at work, so it was just us girls tonight.
“We need to leave town on one of our special missions soon,” Aurora said.
“Nope,” I said and shoveled more food into my mouth. I’d put on a few pounds sitting around on my butt all the time.
“This isn’t something we can get out of,” my bestie said in a chiding tone. “It’s our duty.”
I gave her a flat look and didn’t bother to respond.
“Saige,” mom said in the beginnings of a lecture.
“I’m not going, mom,” I said to cut her off. “Fate screwed me over. She let me think Drake would be my reward for saving the world. He chose someone else, so he can get another minion to do his dirty work for him.” My tone was so bitter that they shared an uneasy look.
We subsided into silence, but the nagging feeling didn’t go away. I’d blocked Ruen’s number after he kept trying to call me for the first two days after I’d quit. He even came to mom’s house to try to talk me into returning to work. Mom had turned him away without giving him an explanation for my decision. None of my colleagues knew I was in love with our boss. Drake had apparently wiped their memories of my reaction to finding out he was engaged. It was a mystery to them why I’d quit so suddenly.
The feeling that I needed to continue our mission to save the world from disaster grew worse. It kept me awake at night so I tossed and turned. Aurora got as little sleep as I did. She was cranky when she went to work and was sullen when she got home. Ruen called her several times to say we needed to head back to the underworld. She took the calls where I couldn’t hear her, so I didn’t know what she was saying to him.
Mom had finally had enough on the seventh night. She waited until after we’d eaten dinner before she levelled a hard stare at me. I flinched at her stony gaze, knowing she was about to hit me with a truth bomb. “You’ve felt sorry for yourself for long enough, Lil Bish,” she said sternly. “You have a duty that no one else can take over from you. Fate chose you to be her champion, so you need to suck it up and get your butt to the fifth realm of the underworld.”
My lips quivered at the hint of disappointment in her tone. It was the one thing I couldn’t bear and she knew it. “Fine,” I grumbled in capitulation. “I’ll put my life in danger for the entire world again despite the fact that I couldn’t care less if every single person in this world dies horribly.”
“We know you don’t mean that,” Aurora said with an eyeroll at my dramatics. “You don’t want your mom or me dead.”
“You two can live,” I said grudgingly. “And I suppose Kye and my relatives can live, too.”
“That’s very generous of you, kiddo,” mom said wryly. “I’m glad you included my fiancé on your list.”
My face crumpled at the word that I’d come to loathe. It wasn’t easy to suppress the tears that were always hovering just beneath the surface. “I’ll go and pack a bag,” I said dully and pushed my chair back from the table.
“Sherlock and Watson will be here in ten minutes,” Aurora said. She shrugged at the betrayed look I gave her for setting this up behind my back. “Ruen will be with them, so prepare yourself for the nagging of a lifetime.”
I almost snickered, but depression killed my momentary amusement. Aurora had packed a few days ago. I’d stubbornly refused to prepare for the inevitable. Now that the time was upon us again, maybe it was a good idea to get away from Nexus for a few weeks. At least I’d be too busy trying to stay alive to think about Drake and his beautiful fiancé in bed together.
I had no idea what sort of creature I was going to turn into this time, or what would happen to the clothing I took with me. Stuffing t-shirts, jeans, underwear and spare sneakers into my backpack, I took a couple of empty bags as well. I shoved some knives, sheaths and straps in next. Aurora and I had bought faux animal skin waterbags from a camping store. We wouldn’t know if they would make the journey or vanish until we reached the underworld.
Aurora and Kye had brought our clothing, TVs and games home, but had left all of the furniture behind. They’d brought my weapons trunk and it was sitting at the end of my bed. Hesitating for a few moments, I wasn’t mean enough to deprive Ruen of his beloved knives. They went into my backpack, then I headed back upstairs.
“I called Mekhi and told him we’ll be going out of town for a while again,” Aurora said. “He wasn’t happy about it, but he didn’t try to guilt trip me into staying.” It had only been two months since we’d returned from the last trip, so it was understandable that he would be upset.
A car pulled up a couple of minutes later. Mom gave us a tight hug before she saw us out.
Ruen turned to scowl at me for a second when we reached the dark gray SUV. Aurora climbed inside and I slid in after her. The silence was heavy as my bestie and I waved at mom as the vehicle drove off.
Watson was driving as usual and Sherlock was riding shotgun. Slightly shorter than his partner, Sherlock had the typical blond hair of a werelion. Watson’s hair was brown, but just as thick and regal as his colleague’s.
Ruen’s shoulders were hunched up around his ears. He’d turned to face the window so he didn’t have to look at me. It seemed the nagging session my roommate had predicted was going to be postponed.
“Where’s the gate to the fifth realm?” Aurora asked after we’d been driving for a few minutes.
“It’s to the southeast of the city,” Sherlock said in a subdued tone. He shot me an accusing look, then turned to face the windscreen again.
It didn’t escape my notice that both lions were unhappy with me. I’d abandoned my job and had delayed our trip to the underworld out of sheer stubbornness. Only a few people knew why I’d walked away from being a bounty hunter. Drake hadn’t bothered to make up a story when he’d wiped the memories of the people who’d witnessed my meltdown. Either they’d been ordered not to ask me about it, or they didn’t want to hear my reasons. Neither of the shifters spoke to me during the forty-minute drive.
The gate to the next realm was hidden inside an auto repair shop. Shifters were working on a variety of vehicles when we pulled up. I could tell they were Drake’s employees from their alertness and the weapons I could see beneath their overalls. They would probably be closing for the night soon. It would be suspicious if they kept the shop open all the time.
“I’d like to speak to Ms. Sterling alone,” Ruen said as the lions got out.
“We’ll wait for you inside,” Aurora said as he climbed out to let her out as well.
He climbed back inside and slammed the door hard enough to rock the car. I braced myself for the lecture he’d been holding inside as he turned to me. “How could you?” he asked in a low, enraged tone, dark eyes flashing with near hatred.
“I’m going to need more information before I can answer that question,” I said dourly.
“How could you walk out on Lord Gilden when he needed you?” he asked accusingly.
“I killed the fairy and potentially saved his life,” I reminded him, unable to get angry myself. My anger had faded and apathy had taken its place. “He’s safe from her now, so he doesn’t need me anymore.”
He looked me up and down with all the contempt he could muster. “I don’t know what’s really going on inside your thick head, but you’ve proven yourself to be a pathetic, petty little girl. You’re not mature enough to be worthy of being on Lord Gilden’s team of bounty hunters. I’m glad you left and that we’re no longer partners. As far as I’m concerned, we don’t need you.”
With that final stinging jab, he opened the door and climbed out. I sat there in stunned, hurt disbelief. I was the one who’d had my heart broken. Drake had strung me along and had played me for a fool. All the while, he’d been courting a weredragon behind my back.
My rage resurfaced and I shoved the door open. I slammed it so hard that the frame warped and the door became wedged in place. Sherlock and Watson intercepted me when I entered the shop. A door at the back of the room was opened by someone on the other side. Aurora and Ruen stepped through it.
“What?” I snapped at the lions.
“The code you’ll need to use when you return is three knocks, a four second pause, then two knocks,” Sherlock said icily.
“I’ll brand that into my memory,” I said sarcastically, then stalked after my companions who’d left me behind. I forgot the combination before I’d taken five steps.
